Hermitage employees will not be allowed to visit the vault alone

Director of the State Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovsky signed an order to tighten control in the museum’s scientific library. He told this to reporters on Monday.

In particular, employees will be prohibited from remaining alone in the storage facility, and night tours will also be conducted in the library. They plan to check the library's collections and increase the number of surveillance cameras.

New rules are associated with an attempt to steal items from the library of the museum, which became known last week.

Piotrovsky did not comment on the progress of the investigation into this case. He only said that the subject of the theft was not exhibits, but rare editions. “We are talking about an act of vandalism and barbarism, and only after that - about theft. The suspect tore out pages from 19th-century books about the history of Peter the Great, the history of Peterhof and the history of Russia,” Piotrovsky said.

In January, 2015, the staff of the Scientific Library of the museum during the next inspection of the book depository on the 5 floor found that in some publications there are no number of photographs, illustrations and engravings. Employees of the museum and law enforcement agencies were able to identify the employee of the library who committed thefts, as well as the place of sale of valuables.

The suspect was detained on February 12. Engravings, lithographs, photographs, and books of the 17th –19th centuries stolen from the Hermitage were found in the apartment of the suspect, as well as in the apartment of his acquaintance and in a number of antique shops in St. Petersburg. Items returned to the Hermitage library.

The suspect in the theft was detained and arrested. A case has been opened on the grounds of a crime, provided for by part 4 of article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (theft on a particularly large scale).